Your excellent editorial “The Right to Vote” (Aug. 9) doesn’t mention one
key point that helps explain problems in protecting our right to vote:
the Constitution does not guarantee suffrage rights.

At our nation’s founding, there was no consensus on suffrage, with
decisions about voting given to the states, which often punted it to
localities. Today, more than 12,000 jurisdictions make independent
decisions affecting administration of presidential elections, often with
insufficient financing.

Some nine million Americans who cannot vote for president and Congress
(mostly because of felony convictions and living in territories) could do
so if living elsewhere in the country. More than a quarter of eligible
voters are not registered to vote, while millions are registered more
than once.

Just as free speech is fundamental to democracy, so is a right to vote.
It’s time for more attention to H.J.R. 28, legislation to establish a
constitutional right to vote for American adults.